Desire and Deceit [bxb]

11. The invitation

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...

"Alvin, brother, are you quite well?" Wilhelm asked concernedly, and to an outsider's eye, he would seem ever so worried about his stepbrother's well-being, but to Alvin, who had spent quite a time with the younger, it seemed clear as it was. A poke.

"Only, you've been so pale ever since our outing." The boy continued, taking a sip of his tea. It was no wonder why he had deemed it necessary to join them this evening. "But again, it might just be your lovely complexion." The snarkiest smile to exist.

Alvin glowered, nursing his own cup.

"How is the courtship progressing, Alvin?" Old Baron asked, setting his cup down. "Have you made friends with him, at last."

Before the man could answer, Wilhelm butted in. "Oh, they're very good friends now, if I dare say so myself."

"Nothing untoward, I hope?"

"Grandfather!" Alvin exclaimed, jumping in his seat. "No! Never!"

Lord Frazier shrugged. "I wouldn't blame you."

"What- grandpa!"

The old man added a sugar cube to his tea. "As long as he doesn't coerce you, I don't see a problem with a bit of necking. You're both men, and twenty is not a good age to be a nobleman, and neither is thirty." His voice said 'Been there, done that.'

"That's great, grandpa, but nothing-"

"As long as," Lord Frazier's eyes turned sharp suddenly. "it ends in a marriage."

Alvin fell quiet. "Understood, sir." He looked up sheepishly. "Nothing happened though, I promise."

"But of course, son, of course."

...

"Say, Alvin, are you going to the ball at the P's this weekend? The theme is golden nights, whatever that means."

"Well, Lizzie, if you're going, suppose I must as well."

"But," The girl frowned. "Will the duke be there?"

"And... how would I know?"

"Ask him!"

"What? Of course not." Alvin closed his book shut. "He'll see it as an invitation, he will, that bloody basta-"

"Have you no romance at all?"

Alvin looked away and opened his book again. Clearing his throat, he spoke in the snobbiest voice he could muster. "He must be the one to ask me."

Elizabeth lost her voice.

Until...

"What?! Alvin-"

"Shush!" Alvin urged. "Do not speak. Do not speak at all."

"I simply cannot-"

"Forget it. Forget everything at once."

"You are in love, Alvin, you are absolutely gone."

"And, how, dear sister, did you come to that conclusion?!"

"You are vying for his attention, my dear, positively salivating-"

"Gross! Don't be crass, Lizzie."

She laughed, and Alvin joined, letting out his breath. He closed his book again.

"No but really, it's not love."